Over 30 tigers and leopards constantly cross the border of Russia and China

Scientists in China and Russia established that at least 15 of 19 leopards and tigers are constantly moving across the borders of Russia and China, and some of them change their country of residence, according to the national Park “Land of leopard”.

Report on the project “Study on transborder movement of Amur tigers and far Eastern leopards with camera traps and molecular genetic analysis” of the fgbi “Land of leopard”, WWF-Russia and the Center for the study of cat (China) presented on 28-29 November in Beijing at the meeting NEASPEС (North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation — United Nations programme on subregional cooperation on environmental issues of northeast Asia).

“The main achievement of the joint research was reliable information on transboundary movements of far Eastern leopards and Amur tigers. Thus, it became known that at least 15 tigers and 19 leopards were recorded simultaneously in both countries during the study period. While the animals moved across the border in different ways. Some individuals crossed the border to 10 times, which indicates that they have “dual citizenship”: they constantly live on the territory of two countries and not even to say whose they are resident, Russian or Chinese,” — said in the message.

As noted by the head of the science Department of the fgbi “Land of leopard” Anna Vitkalov recorded travel from Russia to China, the two young leopards and two young tigers from Russia who now live in China and the home is no longer fixed. “It is obvious that the increase in the number of far Eastern leopards and Amur tigers encourages them to develop to the Russian border forests of China, where they lived before they were exterminated. This range expansion is a natural process,” — said the expert.

According to the senior coordinator, division of endangered species Amur branch of WWF Alexey of Kasturi, the number of the rare cats that permanently live on the territory of the PRC, are relatively low. The main part of the animal is “international tourists”, whose main place of residence is Russia.

“As noted at the meeting in Beijing, the Chinese side should be more efforts to improve the quality of habitats. We hope that this role will implement new national Park created by the government of China on the border with Russia. In turn, in Primorye now is create another key transboundary protected areas – reserve Komissarovskiy, which borders the reserve Penjualan in China,” added Kostyrya.